The UAE finished the Al Ain 7s tournament on a high yesterday after they won their third place play-off.

Head coach Roelof Kotze had targeted winning the tournament, but defeat to Lebanon yesterday put paid to their chances of reaching the final and vying for the trophy.

Despite this, team manager Mohamed Shaker said the weekend was good for the development of UAE rugby as a whole.

Yesterday began badly for the Emiratis, with a 26-14 defeat to Lebanon, Harab Alazry scoring a brace of tries and Adel Al Hendi converting both. They secured a place in the third and fourth place play-off by beating Afghanistan 14-7.

Al Hendi was again heavily involved, scoring a try and two conversions, including that of captain Cyrus Homayoun’s score.

They then comfortably beat Jordan 26-7 to take third place.

Waled Salem touched down twice, there was another try for Al Hendi, and one for Thani Almuhairi. Al Hendi converted three of the tries.

“We were disappointed not to be in the final,” said Shaker. As with Friday’s defeat to Iran, in which Alazry was sin-binned for a high tackle, he said the team were hindered by individual errors.

“Yousif Lashkari knocked-on as he was going in to score and there were several missed tackles too,” he said. Shaker added, however, that it was important to finish the tournament on a high.

“Jordan played quite tough but it was quite a convincing win. We were expecting something more than third, but it was a good finish (to the tournament).”

While the team did not win, he said UAE rugby overall had. “It was good for the development of UAE rugby, especially playing young boys, many of whom scored tries.”